Business lobbies line up against $12 minimum wage: Will they yield

The state’s business lobbies deployed old arguments on Monday to denounce a House-passed bill that ramps up to a new $12-an-hour statewide minimum wage, as the Republican-run Washington State Senate began work on the issue.

The mastodons of commerce did, however, hear a sharp warning from a moderate Democrat in the Legislature’s upper chamber.

Democratic Rep. Jessyn Farrell, right, hugs Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self after a bill to raise Washington state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour over a four-year period was passed by the House. The measure passed on a 51-46 vote, and it now heads to the Senate. (AP Photo/Rachel La Corte)

“I think it is dangerous: There is an initiative out there that would raise it to a level that is unacceptable,” State Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, told the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee.

Hobbs was defining what may be a Hobson’s choice for the Association of Washington Business, the Washington Restaurant Association, the National Federation of Independent Business and the Washington Farm Bureau Federation.

The lobbies can accept a gradual rise to $12 an hour, or face a $16 in ’16 minimum wage initiative on the state ballot next year.

“While the ($12) proposal is modest, and the increase is slow and steady, the effect on the 550,000 people in Washington who will benefit from this and are struggling to make ends meet is enormous,” argued State Sen. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle.

“The reality is 90 percent of minimum wage earners are adults. They are mothers and fathers, they are millennials and military veterans. These Washingtonians deserve a raise.”

Washington has a $9.47 an hour minimum wage, currently highest in the country. Seattle has adopted a gradual move to a $15-an-hour minimum wage, the first step coming on Wednesday.

The Senate is also taking up House legislation providing for paid sick leave, and an equal pay bill designed to eliminate wage discrimination against women.

Speaking for paid sick leave, school nurse Joan Lankford argued: “Children are vomiting and sick (in school) . . . but parents can’t pick them up for fear of losing their jobs.”

Melantha Jenkins, a single mother of two who holds down two jobs, told the Senate panel: “I can’t afford the basic needs for my twin daughters . . . Saving for my babies’ needs is not an option.”

Robert Bleu, president of Shining Ocean Inc., speaking for the Association of Washington Business, countered that higher wages mean higher costs. “The bottom line is if there’s no profit in the end, there is nothing to give employees in the end.”

Opponents argued the line that many minimum wage workers are students who will grow up, get degrees and go on to better-paying jobs.

“You’re not supposed to stay with me forever,” said Tracey Larsen, owner of the Pacific Dairy Queen.

Bob Battles, government affairs director with the Association of Washington Business, argued: “If you increase wages, it will increase costs across the board.”

The support for a $12 wage came from such groups as OneAmerica, which does advocacy for immigrants, the labor-backed Working Washington, and a business group called the Main Street Alliance.

“My customers pay to get their car fixed with wages and paychecks and Social Security, not with capital gains and stock offering,” said Don Orange, who owns an auto and tire shop in Vancouver.

“I am a conservative small businessman: Give people wages to spend,” he added.

Washington got its current minimum wage in the late 1990’s, when organized labor became frustrated with the Legislature and took its case to the voters. They approved a measure that indexes the minimum wage to the rate of inflation.

The result is that Washington enjoys a $2.22 an hour advantage over Idaho, which holds onto the $7.25 an hour minimum wage.

State Sen. Steve Conway, D-Tacoma, argued: “Actually, business picks up with more money in circulation.”

But Joreen Brinkman, owner of ICB Hospitality in Pullman, argued that her customers will pick up and head across the Idaho border where prices are lower.

The National Federation of Independent Business claimed, as it has with past minimum wage hikes, that jobs will be lost, saying the state “could” lose 16,000 jobs if the $12 an hour wage is enacted.

Patrick Connor, state director of NFIB, claimed the minimum wage “is an entry level wage earned almost entirely by teens and young adults starting out their working lives.” He claimed that the “fist rung up the economic ladder” would be removed.

Jayapal countered with statistics about adult employees. She noted that Washington’s reliance on a state sales tax takes the largest chunk from the lowest income earners.

“Washington has the most unfair tax system in the nation,” said Jayapal. “We are one of just a handful of states where all the wealth (growth) between 2009 and 2012 accrued to the top 1 percent of earners.

“Our economy is growing, worker productivity is growing, and there is more is more wealth in the system — but workers are not sharing in that increased wealth. This is unconscionable and it needs to change.”

Will the business lobbies agree to a modest increase or risk a $16-an-hour initiative in 2016?.

They might look to an axiom coined by Frederick the Great in the 18th Century: “He who defends everything ultimately defends nothing.”